Unreal Tournament 2003	Source: Epic

Unreal Tournament 2003 is the sequel to 1999's multiple 'Game of the Year' award winner. It uses the very latest Unreal Engine technology - where graphics, sound and game play are taken beyond the bleeding edge. Unreal Tournament 2003 employs the use of Vertex as well as Pixel Shaders and it's recommended that you use a DirectX 8 videocard to get the most out of the game.

UT2003 Demo 640x480 Flyby
	Video Card	FPS	Ranking
1.	P4 3.2C/Intel D875PBZ (200/400)	247.74
2.	AXP 3200+/Albatron KX18DProII (200/400)	244.64
3.	A64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo (200/400)	299.5
4.	A64 3200+/Albatron K8X800ProII (200/400)	300.96
5.	A64 3200+/Albatron K8X800ProII (245/407)	316.04

UT2003 Demo 640x460 Botmatch
	Video Card	FPS	Ranking
1.	P4 3.2C/Intel D875PBZ (200/400)	82.81
2.	AXP 3200+/Albatron KX18DProII (200/400)	80
3.	A64 3200+/MSI K8T Neo (200/400)	94.07
4.	A64 3200+/Albatron K8X800ProII (200/400)	94.87
5.	A64 3200+/Albatron K8X800ProII (245/407)	99.91

In UT2003 there's simply no competition to the Athlon64 systems like that of the Albatron K8X800Pro II. At stock speeds the Albatron K8X800 Pro II and MSI K8T Neo perform on par with each other, with a slight edge in favour of former.

Albatron's first Athlon 64 motherboard!

There's a saying better late then never and I think that's very true when we talk about the Athlon64 and Athlon64 FX processors. If AMD had released the chips we see today last year as planned, it would have seriously upset Intel. While the supply of Athlon64 3200+ and Athlon64 FX51 processors is still slim, there is a very bright future ahead for these remarkable chips.

While everyone else is trying to target the mainstream users, Albatron know that it's the enthusiasts who are most likely to adopt the Athlon64 right now, and their K8X800 Pro II is directly targeted towards that very crowd. Why else would they use a copper Northbridge cooler, or give the end user so many voltage options?

Performance of the Albatron K8X800 ProII motherboard was indeed very good, but it seemed to trail the MSI K8T Neo in 3D applications. If you're an overclocker the K8X800 Pro II is certainly a very enticing option as it allows you to use multipliers lower then 10x. Our particular board maxed out at 245 MHz but we were also able to overclock the processor and memory higher on the Albatron K8X800 Pro II than with the MSI K8T Neo thanks to the better functioning voltage options.

With a 3Com Gigabit LAN controller, Serial ATA, VIA's new Envy 24PT 7.1 soundcard, IEEE 1394 and dual BIOS's the board may seem a bit bare on the old IDE/SATA Raid front, but then again, there are six PCI slots available if you need more storage devices. Retail price of the Albatron K8X800 ProII is not clear yet, but I would expect it to go for in the range of $200-250 CDN. If you're considering jumping on the socket 754 Athlon64 bandwagon you're probably already an enthusiast, and that is exactly who Albatron have built the K8X800 Pro II motherboard to satisfy!

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